Tiny House Project

The Tiny House Project's goal is to create affordable work/live units for local artists to keep the culture alive in San Diego.

Phase 1 - Building the team

​The first phase of this project was to choose teams. We were already grouped in pairs to learn the basics about SketchUp. Within our pairs we were able to choose if we wanted to stay together or separate depending on how well we collaborated with each other. Those who separated wrote descriptions about what they can offer a group, almost like a job resume. Those who stayed with their pair chose two people to make up the other half of their group, solely based on the descriptions that people wrote for themselves. Thus, creating fourteen groups of 3 to 4 students.

I chose to stay with my partner, Mia, because we worked really well together. We felt that we were very successful with the end product of our SketchUp house, and we wanted to work together again. While we were reading the descriptions of potential group members we were looking for someone that had strengths that we necessarily didn't have yet. Although I think this was a good decision, I also think that this allowed us to depend on our other group members for the things we weren't so good at, rather than learning from them. At first, I think all of us were a little scared to voice our opinions, in fear of the group not liking it, but throughout the course of the project we grew closer as a team and friends. In the end, I was very happy with my group and we were able to achieve a lot together as a team.

We also did a lot of team bonding in this project, not with just our group of four but with our whole class and team. We did many team bonding games that challenged us to listen to each other and work as one. This brought us together as a team.

Phase 2 - Learning to live tiny

Before this project a lot of us didn't even know tiny houses existed. On the first day of school this year long project was introduced to us with a challenge. We were to create a floor plan for a 16'x16' house with 2 to 3 of our classmates that

we just met that day. This required us to communicate, work together and think creatively. We also created a life size cardboard tiny house. Walking through the finished house gave us an idea of what a tiny house actually feels like walking through it. Ms. Regina also had us do a 30 day challenge. In this challenge, we brought in twenty items from home that we were willing to part with. In thirty days, whatever items we could name in the bag we could keep and whatever we couldn't remember was donated or thrown away. This taught us the wonders of downsizing.

For the task we had to do on the first day of school, I felt that a lot of my ideas were not heard. I let other people take initiative with the actual design element. This is something I kept in the back of my mind for the cardboard house and I learned from the first day of school. I stepped up and I figured out what my group needed to do first. My group was given the hard task of the stairs, which pushed us to think out of the box. Situations like this are very real in the outside world. You're not always going to have the instructions there for you, your brain is the manual and you need to think creatively. When I was gathering my items for the thirty day challenge I caught myself debating weather or not to put certain items in my bag. The hesitation was the sign I should, but I didn't. They say downsizing makes you a happier person. But why is it so hard to do it? We create emotional attachments to objects we don't care about. The more we realize that, the happier we'll be.

Phase 3 - Learning to build a park

Logan Heights Park was our first building project! We worked with Space4Art to build a park for the community members in Logan Heights. This was an opportunity for us to get familiar with the tools and building and also make an impact for the community.

During the process of building the park I was able to learn how to use an electric sander. I sanded the different wood panels that were going to be nailed together to make a fence. After the panels were all sanded, I stained them green. After staining, I designed stencils using geometric lines. We stained the designs on the panels, being strategic on the placement of each one and to each other. I enjoyed seeing the end panel because I had started from the very begging with sanding it, and I helped transform it to have character and personality. One thing I wished I did at the park was learn how to use other tools, because I spent majority of my time on the panels. I made up for this on our other trips to Space4Art.

Phase 4 - Team banner / logo

This project really brought us together as a team and we decided that we needed an image. We needed to be called something, a something that would describe our greatness. We started off with everyone

thinking of potential names. We wrote all of them on the board and slowly eliminated some until we got to "Team Sempiternal." We got "Sempiternal" from a Bring Me The Horizon album. Sempiternal means everlasting. Our team name represented the work we were going to do and how it would make an impact on our community for a lifetime. It also represented that even though we are not going to be this exact team for the next three years, we are still going to have each other. After making up the name, we had to create a logo. We wanted to incorporate things that are everlasting. Each table drafted a banner idea and we voted again as a whole team. We settled on combining a tree and a clock because a tree lives for a very long time and time is endless.

​I have always struggled with coming up with team names. The thought of a couple words representing a group as a whole is almost intimidating. The same goes for a logo. One image to represent who you are. How do you choose a couple words or one image? Something that I can take for another time that I will have to make a name or logo is too first think about what I want people to know about us and go on from there. I think that will really help me in the future.

When we were making the banner, my group was given the task to cut out the tree. This was very tricky because the tree had really intricate roots and branches. We first had to draw the tree on a giant piece of wood. After doing that we cut the tree with a jig saw. During this we had to keep turning the piece of wood and re-clamping it because the tree was curvy and also to make sure we didn't cut into the table. This required a lot of team work and we ended up being successful.

Phase 5 - Interviewing & designing with artists

The day we met our artists we had to interview them about their interests and what they want for their tiny house. Some artists had studios at Space4Art and let us see their work space to get a better look at their work habits and how we could give them components in their tiny house based on those habits. After the interview, we made sure that we got our artist's contact information if we needed to contact them with any questions.

After the interview day, we started drafting floor plans of their tiny house. We were also creating their house digitally and in the 3D with SketchUp. We got feedback from architects about different things and we revised them. After finishing our final drafts we started constructing paper models. The paper models were practice for our final foam board models.

I think one of our strengths was that we were very precise when it came to the drawing the blueprints and cutting the foam board. Our lines were sharp and straight, we didn't make one line without a ruler. Precision is very important in architecture, and although it can be very easy to get lazy and eyeball it, we never settled for that.

Some artists only wanted to use this tiny house as a studio. Our artist happened to be one of them. Because of this my group had less work because we didn't need everything that a house needed. I think this opened a lot of oppurtunites to be creative that we didn't take. I wish we took the extra time we had to come up with something special for Roy.

For our Presentations of Learning (POLs) each group presented their layout pages, blueprints and SketchUp models to our artists, teachers, parents and a panel of architects. We walked them through everything that we had been working on in the first semester.

My group made sure we knew what we were talking about. We were prepared, we practiced countless amount of times. Three of us had already done six POLs already but they were all by ourselves. A POL with a group is exciting but scary. You have to trust that your group members will be able to share everything that needs to be shared. Because we practiced so much, I had complete faith in my group.

We sped through our presentation very fast. I think we should have slowed it down a little. I think slowing it down would allow the audience to take in the information more clearly.

Phase 7 - Fundraising

In order to get the very expensive materials to start building, we needed to fundraise. We used a fundraising website called Kickstarter. We had to raise $18,000 in one month! Everyday we took home fliers, key chains, anything to spread the word about our project. We spent time calling local companies, big corporations and we even tried to call the president to see if they could donate anything. We made drone and dance videos to celebrate big milestones. We created and updated our social media pages constantly reminding people to keep talking. We were able to raise the full $18,000 but it was a close call.

Fundraising was probably the most stressful, but fun, part of this project. During this process I admit I wasn't always positive. I think I could have put more effort into spreading the word. I did put a flyer at my judo dojo, but I could have gone around and told people about the project. I was in charge of the Twitter page along with a few other people. I tweeted a few times and in those tweets I felt that I was motivating others.

Phase 8 - A building company is born

After raising $18,000 it was time to build our first tiny house! Everyone was assigned a different task but the ultimate goal was to get as much done as possible in the two weeks that we were there. Some people worked on the mosaic that would be placed on the outside of the house, some people worked on designs/patterns for the house, some people worked on the windows and some worked on the actual frame of the house.

Building was so much fun! The first two hours I was working on the design element. I decided that that wasn't something I enjoyed so I asked Ms. Regina if I could switch. I am proud of myself because I was able to take initiative and ended up really loving building with Jeff. I worked on the inside of the house. The majority of our time was spent on the loft. We worked a lot with drills and the saw. By the time we left, we were able to install the loft.

Phase 9 - Exhibition

Our exhibition was a celebration of the work we have done for this project. All of our time was dedicated towards exhibition the week of. The exhibition started off with a Tiny House Consultation. We informed people about the Tiny House Movement and created blueprints and SketchUp designs for them on the spot. We used the interviewing skills we learned to ask them questions about what they would need in a house. We created wood panels that showcased our artist and the work we have done for them. They were hung and presented alongside our blueprints and foam board models. We had a table to present our book and the final thing was the house. We built a simple tiny house and played a video showing our whole project inside of it.

During exhibition week I worked on my wood panel. After I finished with my wood panel, I helped out with building the tiny house. I think with the wood panel I definitely took an initiative and put my effort into it. We made that it looked very professional. Because of this we had to sand after we painted on our board because we noticed that the scratches on our board looked bad. After I finished the wood panel I worked on the house with a lot of people. This is where my initiative slipped. I was fine with it because I had just approached the building and I was able to help whenever I could. Exhibition was very fun, I was able to design a floor plan for a family with four kids and explain to my old fifth grade teacher my panel and the symbolism behind it.

For more information about The Tiny House Project you can visit Ms. Regina's digital portfolio and my Humanities project page with the links below: